SHAPING ARMY ACQUISITION
The USAMRDC partnership with venture capital companies is still a burgeoning effort, but on a larger scale it represents the command’s desire to quickly find, fund and procure the types of technologies required to keep U.S. Soldiers safe on the seemingly ever-changing battlefield of the future.
innovation to market. Procurement for military use then naturally follows.
“We want to get to the finish line, which is production,” said Sorensen, noting that the process is constantly being refined for efficiency. “And that involves a lot of elements, a lot of discipline. ARCH’s capabilities augment and accelerate our commercialization efforts beyond mili- tary funding to enhance investments by all stakeholders.”
A DISCIPLINED APPROACH If anyone is familiar with that kind of discipline, it’s Ritter. He noted that, of the thousands of companies and product ideas that the ARCH team sees each year, the firm only makes about 10 to 15 invest- ments. Tat kind of discerning eye can only be a boon to the people and infra- structure tasked with protecting U.S. Soldiers from a number of encroaching threats. “We think there’s a good over- lap between the kinds of companies we’re working with and Department of Defense needs regarding traumatic brain injury, post-traumatic stress and the optimiza- tion of human performance,” Ritter said.
Regardless of the need or interest area— and given USAMRDC’s wide and global footprint, there are a good many—the partnership with an outside firm like ARCH has, itself, become the kind of game-changing force the command is
routinely looking for in products and ther- apeutics. "We're excited to partner with venture capital and try something new,” said Sara Langdon, USAMRDC program manager for other-transaction authority agreements with MTEC. “We aim to leverage, through MTEC, the expertise and infrastructure of ARCH to support current and future partnerships in the commercial space."
CONCLUSION As for the fruits of all that labor—the physical products and technologies them- selves—Sorensen said (with a notable degree of excitement) that MTEC and USAMRDC will be releasing updates in the coming months; a real achievement, given that the partnership between MTEC and ARCH is still relatively young. Mean- while, MTEC will continue to work with other venture capital firms as well (“a small handful of firms,” in Sorensen’s words). Additionally, and as a testament to MTEC’s enduring efforts to reach as far into the corporate world as possible, the organization is creating a new Venture Corps; a sub-entity designed to specifically advance conversations with former mili- tary personnel in the investment arena who—like Ritter, for example—under- stand the importance of the military medical mission.
“We think those engagements with the private markets are mission critical,”
Sorensen said. “We think that they’ll be a true measure of our service to the military and the warfighter, and [also] our service to our members.”
Tat brings the spotlight back to Ritter, who has found a way to continue his Army service well after hanging up his uniform. For him, it’s a familiar path to walk—and yet, at the same time, it covers some new and interesting terrain. “For me personally, it’s been really great to start this partner- ship with MRDC and to help them find new technologies that can make a differ- ence,” he said. “Any connections we can make are great for us as a firm, but it’s also personally satisfying.”
For more information about the
USAMRDC, go to
https://mrdc.amedd.
army.mil/. To learn more about MTEC, go to
https://www.mtec-sc.org/.
RAMIN KHALILI is a writer with USAMRDC’s Public Affairs Office. Before assuming his current role, he spent five years as the knowledge manager for USAMRDC’s Combat Casualty Care Research Program. During his previous work as a broadcast journalist, he earned an Associated Press Award for his work in Phoenix before serving as chief NASA correspondent for CBS in Orlando, Florida. He holds a B.A. in communications from Penn State University.
https://asc.ar my.mil 17
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120
